It is estimated that as many as 9,000 men served aboard the "Mighty Hood" during the operational portion of her 21 year career. Unfortunately, there is no surviving official single listing of ALL men who served in her. Here you will find our attempt at creating such a listing. We are using the few, fragmentary crew lists known to exist, Navy Lists, various official reports, public records, and most importantly of all, inputs from the families of former crew.

Roy
Dobson

Date of Birth:

Not known

Place of Birth:

Not known

Former Occupation:

Not known

Service:

Royal Navy

Service No.:

SR 657

Previous Service No.:

Not known

Rank in Hood (highest):

Writer

Period in Hood:

10th October 1939 to 28th February 1941

Biographical Information:

Roy's long held ambition was to follow in in his father's footsteps - his father has served as a Commander in World War 1 and was brought out of retirement to serve as a Lieutenant-Commander in World War 2. He tried to join the Royal Navy in 1937 but was turned down because he wore glasses, was colour blind and could not swim.
He went on to become a fully qualified bank official before he did eventually succeed in his ambition to join the Navy, aged 21, in 1939 as a writer. He joined HMS Hood on 10th October 1939 after a sea transfer to Loch Ewe on HMS Mashona from Scapa Flow where he had been billeted on HMS Iron Duke. His rank on joining is listed Probationary Supply Assistant. Roy was promoted to Supply Assistant on 25th December 1939 and to Leading Supply Assistant on 7th December 1940.
He left Hood on 28th February 1941 in Rosyth returning to his home depot HMS Victory. He returned to Scotland in June 1941 to HMS St Christopher in Fort William where he was made up to PO.
After leaving Hood he served in several shore stations before joining HMS Bentinck (K314) in 1943 completing several transits of the Atlantic on convoy escort duty as Petty Officer (Supply). In 1945 he was in Canada commissioning LST 3516 (later HMS Striker which saw action at Suez and Aden). He died in 2003.